SEATTLE (AP)—Mercurial outfielder Milton Bradley(notes) was traded to the Seattle Mariners from the Chicago Cubs on Friday for expensive and underperforming pitcher Carlos Silva(notes).

Chicago has been wanting to deal Bradley since the Cubs suspended him for the final two weeks of last season, shortly after he criticized the atmosphere surrounding a team that hasn’t won a World Series since 1908.

Seattle, which has never even appeared in a World Series, didn’t expect to find a suitor for Silva. He has done little except lose and get hurt in the two seasons since he signed a $48 million, four-year contract.

Silva won five games in two years with the Mariners: $4.8 million per victory.

Second-year Mariners general manager Jack Zduriencik, who inherited Silva’s contract from predecessor Bill Bavasi, has been seeking more offense following his acquisition of ace Cliff Lee(notes) in a trade with Philadelphia and the signing All-Star infielder Chone Figgins(notes).

Seattle’s GM characterized Bradley’s fire as a passion to win.

The 31-year-old Bradley was an All-Star in 2008 as a designated hitter with Texas. He led the AL in on-base percentage while batting a career high-tying .321 during a relatively event-free year. That was followed by a tumultuous season with the Cubs.

Seattle believes clubhouse leader Ken Griffey Jr.(notes) and newcomer Figgins will be able to rein in Bradley’s “passion” in a way that is productive. The Mariners repeatedly have proclaimed they want players of high character with good attitudes, citing Figgins as the latest example on Tuesday.

They also wanted another bat.

“We have been looking to add offense to our club and in Milton have a player who has always gotten on base and has the ability to drive in runs,” Zduriencik said in a statement. “He is passionate about winning, as we are, and we believe he’ll be a good fit here.”

The 30-year-old Silva appeared in eight games for Seattle this year while missing most of the season with a bad pitching shoulder. He was a 1-3 with an 8.60 ERA.

Silva was 5-18 with a 6.81 ERA in two seasons with Seattle after leaving Minnesota.

GIDP

12-18-2009, 05:15 PM

Cubs must have really hated Milton to trade him for Carlos Silva and his terrible pitching.

Redsfan320

12-18-2009, 09:04 PM

Why would anybody trade for Bradley at this point? All he's done is cause trouble.

320

Natty Redlocks

12-18-2009, 11:48 PM

Cubs must have really hated Milton to trade him for Carlos Silva and his terrible pitching.

According to Bruce Miles of the Daily Herald, Meltdown's Cubs teammates broke out into spontaneous applause when Hendry kicked him off the team near the end of the season. There was no way he was coming back.

Vottomatic

12-19-2009, 12:51 PM

Good trade. They unloaded his salary and amazingly got something in return. Something, not much........but something. Didn't think that was even possible.

Ghosts of 1990

12-20-2009, 10:50 PM

Start the countdown until Milton is exiled out of Seattle.

Here's a question for discussion, would you take him and all his problems if he could come here and put up numbers for the Reds?

Kingspoint

12-21-2009, 06:18 AM

Why would anybody trade for Bradley at this point? All he's done is cause trouble.

320

You don't get in trouble in Seattle and stay in trouble. Clean City with clean fans who won't put up with anything. He'll keep in line or he'll be gone. The M's lost nothing giving up Silva (addition by subtraction).

If Bradley gives them 2 months before he starts his antics, the M's will get 2 good months of a bat.

Trust me. Bradley will be out the door so quickly he won't have time to pack his bags if he tries his stunts in Seattle.

texasdave

12-22-2009, 04:02 AM

This is really neither here nor there but I found this tidbit interesting. The Mariners scored roughly 50 runs less than they gave up and still won 85 games in 2009. Pythagorically speaking, they should have been expected to win about ten games less than they did (75).
They could, quite conceivably, have a better ballclub in 2010 and not win as many games as they did in 2009. I think all the talk about how the power in the AL West has shifted from the Angels to the Mariners may be a bit premature.

Kingspoint

12-22-2009, 07:30 AM

They could, quite conceivably, have a better ballclub in 2010 and not win as many games as they did in 2009. I think all the talk about how the power in the AL West has shifted from the Angels to the Mariners may be a bit premature.

It should be tough to win over 90 games as they have no starters after their King Felix and Lee. But, the Angels don't have a closer any more and they lost some great pitching and a great player in Figgins. The Angels are a low-90 win team now, possibly high-80's.

When the Mariners were in their hey-dey, they had the best Top-3 starting pitchers in the league, one of the best, if not the best lineups in baseball, and they still couldn't get to the World Series. They weren't complete as they had a poor bullpen.

To win the World Series, it's a good idea if:

1. You have great 8th and 9th inning pitchers.
2. You have one of the Top-10 pitchers for all of baseball for that year who gets hot at the right time...the other starters don't matter, as they can all be average.
3. You have one clutch RBI producer in the middle of your lineup.
4. You play good defense.
5. You have decent OBP guys in the Top 2 spots in the batting order.

Have those elements and you can contend to win the World Series every year. You might only win 88-90 games instead of 102 games, but in the post-season you can dominate. Miss one of those 5 things and you have a slim chance to win the World Series that year.

The Mariners have everything but they are missing the 8th inning guys and the RBI-Producer. Solve those problems and they have a great shot at getting to the World Series for the first time, but winning it, too.

The Mariners should finish within 4 games back of the Angels, so I agree with you that the power hasn't shifted, yet.

Milton Bradley's not the RBI-producer. Even at his very best, he's not clutch. His RBI's come in garbage time when nothing's on the line. If they could find a way to keep Branyan, they have their RBI-guy. Like Votto last year, he would have had over 100 RBI's if anyone would have been on base when he was up (other than Ichiro). Votto had it worse. They solved the OBP problem with Figgins in the #2 hole. They have outstanding Defense.

They are so close to being there and with as aggressive as they are being right now, I can't see them stopping short. If you could get money on the Mariners to win it all, do it now before they add that last piece and retain Branyan, or pull off a coup and get Jason Bay.

Their G.M. has done the best job of any G.M. this Winter. Wish we had him. Unfortunately, we have the idiot he replaced working for us as a "Special Advisor to the General Manager". As Dr. Phil would say, "How's that working for you?"